Installed VL 6 Std RC1 on my new Sylvania g netbook from CD using a USB LiteON DVD burner. It mostly works but there are a lot of issues that need fixing if VL6 is going to work on this netbook and probably a lot of others in an acceptable way:

1. GUI Install> I had the issue where the installer didn't recognize the media. It affects USB drives as well.

2. Text Install: Network> No option to setup the network was offered. I got a DHCP connection at first boot anyway on the ethernet port but I had to set the hostname in VASM.

3. Text Install: X> vxconf seemed to work but let's just say it doesn't. It gave me a default VESA configuration and an ugly and squashed looking 640x480 resolution. Netbooks almost all run at either 1024x600 (8.9" screens) or 800x480 (7" screens) and vxconf seems to be absolutely ignorant of these resolutions.

4. Text Install: Console> Netbook resolutions also can't be chosen for the framebuffer console. 640x480 works for boot but if you startx manually and then leave X you get an unreadable screen. I may try passing vga=808 in lilo and see if that works.

5. I took the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file from my gOS 3.0 install (the updated OS for this netbook from the Sylvania website) and changed the driver from via to openchrome. That gave me a good looking 800x480 with working 3D acceleration. Unfortunately I get all kind of refresh weirdness and blank spaces on the screen and in the panel at times. The only workable solution is the new open source Chrome driver from Via. That works 100% correctly in gOS once I installed it so it should work if compiled for VL. The driver can be found at http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action. Making this work is top priority for me. Click on Ubuntu 8.10 for the OS to get the source for the 2.6.27.x kernel.

6. Webcam doesn't work out of the box. (No app, maybe no driver.) Ill try and play with this over the next couple of days. It works in other distros so it should work in VL.

7. Wireless (realtek) not working out of the box. The installer knew it was there and correctly identified the chipset. I'll play with this tomorrow. This particular chipset has multiple drivers available, one good, most terrible. I need to see what VL has and possibly add a better driver.

8. CPU frequency scaling: By default the 1200MHz CPU ends up scaled to 600MHz. You can see that in the text part of the boot right before X comes up. vcpufreq seems to allow me to set it to whatever I want. I know powernowd works properly with this laptop but I don't know if vcpufreq does or doesn't. I need to figure out how I check the actual clock speed at any given time. If anyone knows this off the top of their head and can save me a little research I'd appreciate it.

I *think* with a little work VL6 will be great for this Netbook. gOS, the preinstalled OS, isn't without considerable work. Sylvania gets a 5 out of 5 on hardware -- best value for the price -- but a 1 out of 5 for software. I've got gOS and/or Ubuntu tweaked to the point that the netbook hums along and is a pleasure to use. Now I need to get VL to the same place

UPDATES: I was able to confirm that vcpufreq is working properly. If I

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq

I get 1199976 which is 1.2GHz.

I also was able to configure my wireless in WICD and it does work. However, VL is using the crappy rtl1817 driver which limits my range and signal strength. I'll need to install the better driver and blacklist that one.

9. lilo> I forgot to mention that lilo did not recognize my gOS 3.0 partition. I would understand if it reported it as Debian or Ubuntu. It doesn't report it as anything. Manually edited my lilo.conf file and was able to boot into gOS.

Also vga = 808 didn't work -- VL kernel doesn't recognize that as a valid mode. Old Toshiba Librettos which supported 800x480 (i.e: 100CT and 110CT) do work with this running Damn Small Linux (2.4.31 kernel) so I don't understand why it wouldn't work with a modern kernel. Weird.

10. Text install> still only offers lilo. No grub.

11. LXDE> Unable to connect to fam error on startup. Asks if fam or gamin is running.

12. gdm> No mouse pointer on screen yet mouse still does work. The cursor just isn't displayed. Once I login the mouse cursor appears.

to start it at boot you need to add the gslaptd service to your runlevel or add /etc/rc.d/rc.slapt-update-notifier to rc.local

Sorry to be slow - the joys of working shifts over Christmas....

Anyhow, the daemon seems to be started - /etc/rc.d/rc.slapt-update-notifier is executable, and I see a message about starting the daemon during verbose boot up (which I have to use to stop lockups...).

However, there is something strange going on. The /var/run/slapt-update-notifier.PID is created, but if I run rc.slapt-update-notifier restart manually, I get this:

Paul: After I installed VL6rc1 on my netbook I configured the slapt-get-notifier to check periodically (every four hours I think). Sure enough I got a bright red icon on the Xfce panel. One click to get the updates installed. When it works it is absolutely brilliant and makes keeping a VL box secure a snap for anyone.

I, of course, have no clue why it doesn't work for you. What I am saying that it can work.

13. Audio> Sound works fine out of the box through the internal speakers but doesn't work thought the headphone jack or with external speakers. This is described in the Ubuntu forums at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=887894&highlight=sylvania. They also let you know how to patch ALSA to fix this. It would be nice if this fix was included in the VL ALSA package before the final VL 6 is release.

14. LXDE> If you go to set the desktop wallpaper it looks in a directory under /etc that doesn't exist rather than /usr/share/wallpapers

I tried that and there is no change I've downloaded the alsa-drivers source code from our VL6 source repository and I'll try the Ubuntu fix when I have time. The video and wireless issues are still more urgent to me.

I tried that and there is no change Sad I've downloaded the alsa-drivers source code from our VL6 source repository and I'll try the Ubuntu fix when I have time. The video and wireless issues are still more urgent to me.

I tried that and there is no change Sad I've downloaded the alsa-drivers source code from our VL6 source repository and I'll try the Ubuntu fix when I have time. The video and wireless issues are still more urgent to me.